Sunday, 23 December 2012

The level of rain that has fallen over the last few days has
been truly unbelievable. All parts of Cornwall
have been affected to varying degrees and in St Enoder Parish, I have met with some residents who have
been affected by flooding and I will be making a series of representations
tomorrow (Christmas Eve) and into the New Year.

The above photograph shows the main road through Fraddon in the early hours of Saturday morning.

If you live in St Enoder Parish and have been affected,
please let me know so that I can build up a full picture of how local people
have been affected.

The news that the Chagos Islanders or Chagossians have
failed in their latest legal bid to return to their homeland is truly saddening.

The Islanders lived on the ChagosIslands, a British territory in the
Indian Ocean, until they were evicted in the 1960s and
1970s by the UK
government in order to allow the United States
to build a military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

They took their case to Strasbourg
after a long-running legal battle in the UK,
with the Law Lords ruled against the Islanders by a majority of 3-2 in 2008.

But last week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
ruled that the case was inadmissible. It stated: "The court notably found
that the heart of the applicants' claims under the European Convention on Human
Rights was the callous and shameful treatment which they or their antecedents
had suffered during their removal from the ChagosIslands."

But the court added that because the claims had been settled
"definitively" in domestic courts with a small amount of "compensation," the applicants had
"effectively renounced bringing any further claims to determine whether
the expulsion and exclusion from their homes had been unlawful and breached
their rights".

A spokesman for the islanders has appealed to the Coalition
Government to “stand by their pre-election promises to bring about a just and
fair settlement to one of the great tragedies of the 20th century, perpetrated
by the UK on the defenceless - the brutal removal of an entire people from
their homeland and their way of life, into a life of exile, poverty and
hardship."

Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the latest ruling, two-facedly
adding: "We have made clear our regret for the wrongs done to the Chagossian
people over 40 years ago.”

Mr Hague. Now is not a time for platitudes. Now is the time for
your Government to end this shameful and sordid episode in British history. Now
is the time to allow the Chagos Islanders to go home.

Friday, 21 December 2012

On Wednesday, Eric Pickles (above) announced the latest financial
settlement for local government. He told the House of Commons that the average
cut to local councils was 1.7%. Putting spin into over-drive, he nonsensically
claimed that it "represents a bargain to local authorities."

Cornwall Cornwall was told it would face a cut of 1.8%, but
this is a cut to its “spending power.”

This spurious concept of “spending power” includes estimates
of locally-raised council tax, Town and Parish Council monies, some NHS
funding, and so-called extras such the New Homes Bonus (which “rewards” councils
that promote high levels of development).

The reality is that this equates to a much more significant
reduction in Cornwall Council’s main formula grant but, as yet, these figures
have not been released. I understand that, today, senior officers at Cornwall
Council have been in contact with the Department of Communities to seek clarity
on future funding for Cornwall. No such clarity has been forthcoming.

The utterances of Pickles are crass and offensive. And the
spin that he put on the cuts is just dishonest. He does not understand local government or appreciate the hard work of council
workers in providing vital public services.

Indeed, I would go further. If the Conservative and Liberal
Democrat Coalition does not reverse its cuts, it will destroy local government!

Thursday, 20 December 2012

This week, the two-faced Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition
has praised the work of local councillors.

Local government minister Brandon Lewis (above) paid tribute
to our “often unsung and ongoing work in standing up for local residents,” commenting
also on our “integrity,” “independence” and
“respect” as “champions of the people.”

But he then went onto to announce the Coalition was planning
to stop councillors from joining the local government pension scheme.

He said: “Councillors are volunteers undertaking public
service; they are not and should not be employees of the council dependent on
the municipal payroll … they are not professional, full-time politicians, nor
should they be encouraged to become so.”

What hypocritical hogwash! I am a full-time councillor. This
is because, in order to properly represent my community, it takes 40-50 hours a
week. I have been offered other work, but have been unable to accept it because
of my Council duties.

I take my role as a councillor seriously, my sole income is my
“expenses” – in effect my wages – and I pay a small proportion of it into the local
government pension scheme.

I resent the fact that politicians such as Lewis dare to describe
councillors who pay into a pension scheme as having a “corrosive influence on
local democracy.”

Make no mistake, this Government is doing all in its power to
undermine local government with its cuts. And now it is deliberately trying to undermine
the ability of individuals to serve their local communities as councillors, in particular
making it ever more difficult for people of working age to take on this role in
places like Cornwall, where there is only one principal authority.

It came like a shot out of the blue. The news broke at about
4.00pm, when it became public knowledge that Kevin Lavery had been offered the post
of Chief Execuive for Wellington City Council in New Zealand.

Featured in the Dominion Post, under the heading “Council
chooses slash and burn CEO,” the New Zealand newspaper stated the following:

“An Englishman with a reputation for cost-cutting has been
picked as chief executive of Wellington City Council, ousting long-term
incumbent Garry Poole.

“In a closed-door meeting on Wednesday night, councillors
spent three hours debating the appointment of Kevin Lavery, who will receive a
salary of $420,000. Councillors interviewed four people for the position on
Monday, after deciding in August to advertise the position.

Mr Poole applied for the job but The Dominion Post
understand he lost out in a 9-6 vote to Dr Lavery, chief executive of Cornwall
Council in southwest England.

“In that role, which he has held for four years, Dr Lavery
has been responsible for a £1 billion (NZ$1.94b) budget, and has driven a
controversial proposal to outsource shared council services, including
information technology, call centres and procurement in an effort to cut costs.
In 2010, his pay package was worth £245,342 (NZ$476,732), and a newspaper
investigation found that Cornwall Council had the highest staff credit card
bill in Britain.

“Mr Poole announced the decision in a statement to staff
yesterday: ‘As you can appreciate, it is a decision that for me is a
significant disappointment. I am enormously proud of Wellington and what we
have done to help it build an international reputation as a remarkable place to
live, work, visit and play.’

“The council would be announcing the new appointment in ‘due
course’ and he would work with the executive leadership team on the transition.
‘I have great confidence that we all will ensure this change does nothing to
disrupt the quality and consistency of our work.’

“Mr Poole declined to be interviewed yesterday.

“At Monday's interviews, the short-listed candidates gave
presentations to the full council before being questioned by councillors.
Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon oversaw the
process. All staff and the public were ejected from the floor of the town hall when
debate began on Wednesday.

“Ms Wade-Brown had previously said the council was aiming to
reach a decision before Christmas.

“She also declined to comment yesterday but in a statement
thanked Mr Poole for his work over the past 15 years and said the council would
work closely with him to ensure a smooth transition.

“She did not name the successful candidate, saying that
would be published once negotiations were complete.”

As a Cornwall Councillor, it comes as no surprise to find out
such news via the media – it is almost the norm at County Hall – and I assume we
will not know until tomorrow whether Kevin Lavery has accepted the appointment.

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Today, squeezed in between two normal meetings, I joined a number of fellow councillors and staff from the Democratic Services section to perform a Nativity Play. This was part of the annual Cornwall Council Has (not) Got Talent competition, which raises money for Children in Need.

The narrator was Cllr Andrew Wallis was an angel! I was one of the three "not-so-wise" men played by three of the group leaders (see below). The others were the Lib Dem's Cllr Jeremy Rose and Cllr John Wood from the Independents.

My deputy leader Cllr Andrew Long played the donkey with great gusto (see below). Other councillors involved included Joyce Duffin as Mary, Bernie Ellis as the innkeeper and Lisa Dolley as a sheep, while Sally Bain played a triangle.

The second key debate at Full Council today was the future
governance arrangements for Cornwall Council. Two options had been worked up by
the Governance Review Panel of which I am Vice-Chairman.

These were a revised form of Cabinet and a “Strategic Committee”
alternative. I moved the “Strategic Committee” option, but this only won the
support of the five MK councillors and about twenty others.

Today was Full Council and the first agenda item was the
so-called Strategic Partnership. In the first vote, councillors voted against
the full BT outsourcing option – known to many as the “thick-JV” option. It was
rejected by 71 votes to 30.

The second proposal to be put to the vote was to keep
services “in-house.” This was lost by 50 votes to 46. The fifty councillors
were mainly Conservatives and independents, but included at least six Liberal
Democrats.

Early in the afternoon session, councillors voted to back a less
comprehensive, but still extremely significant, “thin-JV” option. This option includes ICT, document management,
telehealth and telecare, and will involve the transfer of over 300 staff into
a private company.

It is a sad day for Cornwall Council and the public sector.

For the record, all five MK councillors at the meeting (myself,
Stuart Cullimore, Loveday Jenkin, Andrew Long and Tamsin Williams) backed calls
to keep services in-house and opposed all the other options. Our sixth
councillor, Neil Plummer, was not present because he is ill with pneumonia.

Sunday, 9 December 2012

In this coming
week’s Cornish Guardian, my column will note the 70th anniversary of the
Beveridge Report and contrast it to the actions being perpetrated by the
Coalition Government. Here’s the preview:

December 2012
marks the seventieth anniversary of the Beveridge Report. Produced during the
Second World War, this document sought to tackle what it described as the “five
giant evils” of “idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want.” Beveridge
himself said that they were operating within a "revolutionary moment” in the history of the world and
that it was a “time for revolutions, not for patching.”

The
recommendations of the Report were truly far-reaching, and the
Ministry of Information stated that it had been “welcomed with almost universal
approval by people of all shades of opinion and by all sections of the
community” and that it was seen as “the first real attempt to put into practice
the talk about a new world.”

The Beveridge Report led to real societal change, including the creation of the National
Health Service and the welfare state. Indeed, there was a whole raft
of post-war legislation which
covered areas such as national insurance, family allowances, pensions, housing
and rent control.

Seven decades
on, we should be celebrating how the work of Beveridge and his colleagues
benefited millions and millions of families.

But I am fearful
of how the policies of this present government are undermining the traditional fairness
that has been at the core of British society for so long, much of which
emanated from the reforms of the late 1940s.

We have had the
Health and Social Care Bill, which has privatised great tracts of the NHS,
ignoring unprecedented levels of opposition from nurses, doctors and ordinary
people.

We have received
report after report demonstrating that government policies are impacting most
on the less-well-off and the vulnerable.

And only days
ago, 59 charities and other organisations (including Oxfam, Barnardos, the
Children's Society and the Child Poverty Action Group) joined together to
condemn attacks on the welfare budget.

Describing the government’s
approach as “punitive and unfair,” they argued it would hurt children and
families, and “risk losing the very safety net” instigated by Beveridge.

Their joint
letter also stated “the truth is that the vast majority of those who rely on
benefits and tax credits are either in work, have worked, or will be in work in
the near future … while the chancellor paints a picture of so-called ‘strivers’
and ‘skivers,’ our organisations see the reality on the ground: families
scraping by in low-paid work, or being bounced from insecure jobs to benefits
and back again."

I believe that the
Coalition Government needs to listen to those groups campaigning to end all
forms of poverty and social injustice, and to act accordingly, with the spirit
of Beveridge foremost in their minds.

The latest by-election for a seat
on Cornwall Council has returned a Conservative.

The winner was former Penwith
District Councillor Anthony Pascoe, who out-polled two prominent local
independents who came second and third.

MK put forward John Gillingham,
who polled 6.2% of the vote. This was John’s first-ever election campaign and
he was also MK’s first council candidate in this area since the 1970s.

John worked extremely hard and I
would like to congratulate him and his team for their efforts. I understand
they were very well-received on the doorstep, though sadly this did not
translate into more votes.

Saturday, 8 December 2012

My latest column
in the Cornish Guardian focuses on the Leveson Inquiry. It is as follows:

Lord Justice Leveson’s
wide-ranging Inquiry into the “culture, practices and ethics of the press” has reached
its conclusion. After sixteen months, and numerous hearings, he has produced a
hard-hitting report some 1,987 pages long and containing over one million
words.

It is to be
welcomed that “regional” newspapers such as the Cornish Guardian have been
praised as “playing an important social role” and being “good for our communities,
our identity and our democracy.”

But tellingly,
the main bulk of the report tackled how elements of the press had (i) failed to
respect privacy, (ii) obtained information illegally or unethically, and (iii)
harassed individuals.

The behaviour of
certain journalists, investigators and their editors were rightly condemned by Leveson
as “outrageous.”

The report contained
a range of recommendations, including a “new independent press regulator”
underpinned by legislation to ensure that it has the power to act.

The Prime
Minister David Cameron has already refused to support the key proposal of a
“statutory body” to oversee the regulator, expressing concerns that it could infringe
both “free speech and a free press.”

I do not share
Cameron’s view and feel that it is the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg who has
summed up the situation rather better.

He has noted
that there are two principles at play. One is the belief that a “raucous and
vigorous press” is the “lifeblood of a healthy democracy.” And the other, is
the belief that “the vulnerable, the innocent and the weak should be protected
from powerful vested interests.”

This is an extremely
important balance that must be achieved in the future.

I would not want
to see an end to high quality investigative journalism, but it is important
that action is taken against those who have undermined reporting in the UK.

There have been so
many shocking examples of how hundreds of people, both celebrities and ordinary
folk, have had to endure invasive surveillance, and have also had their phones
hacked and their computers compromised.

To give just one
example, I was pleased that Leveson condemned one of the tabloids who “obtained”
private medical information about Gordon Brown’s four-month-old son, and then
published the fact that young child had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Such intrusions
are unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.

We need a
responsible media and that is why I support Leveson’s full recommendation for a
new independent press regulator, underpinned by legislation.

Friday, 30 November 2012

My column in
today’s Cornish Guardian revisits the topic of waste. It is as follows:

It is extremely
good news that central government has awarded Cornwall Council the sum of £1.56
million to “encourage recycling and significantly increase the number and
volume of materials to be recycled in an effort to divert waste from landfill.”

The funding will come from the Department for Communities and Local Government
and it means that the Council will be able to introduce an enhanced kerbside service
that will collect all forms of plastics (including yoghurt pots, tubs and trays).

I am sure this
will be welcomed by everyone who is presently frustrated at the Council’s failure
to collect certain plastics and the resultant confusion.

It has been
estimated that this move will increase the amount of recycling collected each
year by 9,000 tonnes. And there is evidence that such an improvement to the service
would be likely to boost recycling in general.

The funding will
also be used to support a new scheme to help residents recycle their food waste
at home and there will be enhanced recycling at Household Waste and Recycling
Centres. This will include the retrieval of materials such as metal and
textiles from mattresses.

But while I positively
welcome these new initiatives, I do feel they run somewhat counter to the decision
of Cornwall Council’s Cabinet, earlier this month, to agree to push ahead with
the construction of an over-sized incinerator at St Dennis.

The proposed
plant would have an annual throughput of 240,000 tonnes but, at the present
time, the extent of Cornwall’s residual domestic waste is 180,000
tonnes.

Enhancements to
the recycling service will reduce that still further, leaving a massive void
which SITA, the Council’s contractor, would need to fill with commercial or
business waste.

Some people have
even questioned whether SITA would be able to access such commercial waste from
within Cornwall, because of the number of private waste
firms that are operating locally and competing with each other to secure access
to the waste materials.

The Cornwall
Waste Forum has meanwhile published a report from consultants Eunomia on waste management
in Cornwall.

The document is
critical of Cornwall Council’s approach and claims that an alternative approach could
generate “potential savings” of over £300m.

On behalf of a number of councillors from Mid Cornwall, Cllr Fred
Greenslade has written to the leadership of the Council asking them to show “due diligence” and looks closely at
the Eunomia report. The letter asks Cornwall Council to investigate the
veracity of the “potential savings,” to substantiate or refute the findings of
the report, and to consider if there is a more sustainable way forward.

Monday, 26 November 2012

My most recent article for the Cornish Guardian focused on
the tax avoidance presently being practiced by large companies. It was as
follows:

There is an understandable and widespread anger because a
range of large global companies are paying little or no corporation tax on profits
made in the United Kingdom.

According to an investigation by the news agency Reuters, US
coffee giant Starbucks generated sales of £398 million in the UK
last year but paid no corporation tax on their profits at all.

The study found that the company had reported losses in each
of the last five years and therefore could justify paying no corporation tax.
But their executives have also described their UK
business as both "successful" and “profitable.”

The reality is that they have ensured they made “no
profits" through payments to offshore companies also owned by Starbucks.

Reuters meanwhile found that Google managed sales of $4
billion in the UK
but, despite having a profit margin of 33%, paid tax of just £3.4 million.
Google avoids UK
tax by steering sales through an Irish accounting unit.

Likewise, Amazon managed sales of over $5 billion but paid
less than £1 million in tax. It avoids tax through an arrangement with an
office based in Luxembourg.

I am pleased that company executives from Starbucks, Google
and Amazon were recently dragged in front of the Public Accounts Committee to
give evidence to MPs.

But at this session, and throughout the media, there has
been one continuing refrain. Company after company has justified its actions by
stating that what they were doing was "unquestionably legal.”

Maybe so, but I prefer to agree with the Chair of the Public
Accounts Committee. She said she was “not accusing” the companies of acting
illegally, but did accuse them of being “immoral.”

I welcome the fact that MPs are finally waking up to the
fact that they need to "beef up action against tax avoidance” and to
tackle the "systematic abuse" of the system by certain large firms.

But I also feel extremely angry that the Coalition has, in
the recent past, found time to agree a tax cut for millionaires and to push the
ridiculous notion of a “Pasty Tax,” but has so far done very little to tackle
widespread tax avoidance by some large multinationals.

This Government does need to take action and to work with other
European partners to change laws relating to taxation.

It is wrong that the “tax avoidance industry” can continue
to limit revenues to the Treasury, reducing what can be spent on vital public
services, while giving multinational companies an unfair advantage over smaller
firms and businesses.

All companies should make a fair and proportionate contribution
in terms of tax.

In my keynote speech to the MK Conference, I covered a range
of areas including the failures of the Coalition Government, the values that underpin the
policies of Mebyon Kernow, and how MK members could make the difference.

In one section, I condemned the policies of the Conservative
and Liberal Democrat Coalition, as follows:

“Their crude austerity measures and deep cuts to the public purse
pushed the UK back
into recession – the first ‘double dip’ recession in decades.

“They have instituted regressive policies, which are impacting
most on the less-well-off and the vulnerable.

“They have reinforced what is wrong in the UK
– inequality, poverty, a lack of opportunity.

“They have cut benefits for the disabled and forced
thousands into a position where they have to rely on foodbanks to survive from
week to week.

“The Coalition has sacked police officers, teachers and
health workers; and yet, at the same time, they have given tax cuts to
millionaires, they have done little to tackle the tax avoidance of their
corporate chums, and are continuing to waste millions on nuclear weapons.

“They are even promoting regional pay – so that a worker
here in Cornwall, perhaps in the
NHS, will get much less than a worker somewhere else for doing exactly the same
job – disgracefully reinforcing Cornwall
as the ‘low pay’ capital of the UK.”

I also appealed to the Conference to “make 2013 the year
that MK comes of age.” The relevant
section of my speech was as follows:

“The political landscape is changing, people are
increasingly seeing through the failed promises of the London
parties.

“Ours is a party with a great history. Over the last sixty
years, hundreds and hundreds of individuals have played an important part in
building our movement.

“We owe all these people a great deal and we now have a
wonderful opportunity.

“If all the years that went before and all the struggles of
our members are to have real meaning, 2013 must be the year when we achieve a
real step-change in our profile, make that key breakthrough and get more MK
councillors elected than ever before.”

Cllr Stephen Richardson from Illogan meanwhile appealed to
delegates to work hard to “win unitary seats across the whole length of Cornwall
next May” and to offer “hope where London
hawks fear.”

He said “It is our duty to inspire all the people of Cornwall. To say that none of us is as good as all of us.

“We have to create a vision where people like you and me,
the passenger on the Bodmin bus, the schoolgirl in the Camborne classroom, the
boy playing football in Callington, the woman working in the Truro
office and the man walking his dog in Penwith – where all of us can make a difference
by working together.

“Working together for a Cornwall
that is run for the benefit of the people who live here.

“Run by people who live, study and work here and who know
what the real challenges are and how best to meet them.”

Speaking at yesterday’s MK Conference, Cllr Andrew Long (Callington) hit out at the
failed economic policies of the London-based political parties. He said:

“Time and time again, the London
parties have betrayed the people of Cornwall. They don’t know what makes Cornwall
tick, and don’t understand the needs of its people. Let me give you an example. For the last twenty years, Cornwall
has received funding from the European Union because of its poor economic
growth and poverty.

“Despite the promises of the Labour and now Con/Dem regimes,
20 years later and we are now one of the poorest members in the whole of the
European Union. And this includes Greece!

“The truth be told, the London
parties don’t care about Cornwall. They pay lip service to us, but in the cold
light of day it is the political masters in Westminster
who call the tune. They see us as a
sleepy backwater that has nice coasts and is an ideal place for their second ‘homes’!”

Saturday, 24 November 2012

It was good to see so many friends at MK's 2012 National Conference in Truro today. Thanks to everyone who braved the weather to attend, who contributed to the debates and made some great speeches - especially Zofia (above) who attended on behalf of the UDB.

I will post extracts from some of the speeches over the next day or two.

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Today I attended the launch of an independent review of
alternatives to Cornwall Council’s plan for a massive incinerator near St
Dennis.

The report was produced by consultants Eunomia who have in
the past advised Cornwall Council. Their report is dynamite; it claims that an
alternative approach to waste management in Cornwall
could save local tax payers £320 million over the length of the contract.

Printed below are some extracts from the report:

The Cornwall PFI contract has been found to have two
significant problems:

It is outdated and not fit for purpose. Due to its origins
in analysis conducted in the late 1990s, it no longer reflects the policy,
legislative and technology context of waste management. For example, it does
not identify food waste as a separate waste stream, and does not apply current
guidance on how food waste should be collected and treated. This presents a
level of legal risk to the council, which is obliged by law to apply the waste
hierarchy in its approach to waste management.

It is expensive. Based on credible estimates of SITA’s
charges, the contract appears to offer very poor value for money. We estimate
that the contract currently costs the council around £28m per year, and that
this will rise in future. The total cost is estimated at £647m (in real terms) from
2012/13 through to the contract’s end. Our modelling shows that by exiting the
contract, more than half of this cost might be avoided.

The review did not set out to identify an optimum approach
to waste management in Cornwall. A
review on the modest scale of this project could not hope to succeed in so complex
a task. Instead we have compared the estimated costs of the current approach with
the costs the council might expect to incur if it made various changes to its arrangements.
The scale of the potential saving is dramatic, in large part because of the charge
of over £50 per tonne it appears that the contract specifies for receiving and processing
recyclable materials. This charge is set to rise in the future and is already
very high by the standards of the current market. We found that overall costs
could be reduced by an average of £10m per year by simply diverting recyclable
materials out of the PFI contract and onto the open market.

Approaches that involve exiting the contract entirely and
not building SITA’s plannedincinerator save even more – over £20m per year on waste
management, although offset somewhat by additional collection costs. The
detailed results of our modelling are set out in A.2.0. In the context of such
significant savings, the risks and costs that the council has identified as
likely to be incurred in leaving the contract, though unpalatable, are
relatively small compared with the potential savings of over £320m in net
present value terms over the period through to 2036/37. The costs include
likely penalty payments to SITA stated by the council to be up to £80m,
combined with the loss of some £45m of PFI credits.

To read the full report, visit http://www.st-ig.co.uk/files/eunomia_cornwall_waste_assessment_nov_12.pdf

Sunday, 11 November 2012

In my column in the latest edition of the Cornish Guardian,
I have had my say on the Police and Crime Commissioner elections. It is as
follows:

It is less than one week to the election of a Police and
Crime Commissioner for Cornwall, Devon
and the Isles of Scilly.

It is an electoral contest that few appear to want and many
people, including representatives of police officers, have spoken out against the
politicisation of policing.

Put simply, it is surely wrong for the Government to spend
£100-£125 million on unwanted elections when it is cutting police budgets and
reducing the number of police officers on the beat.

And yet, having decided that elected Commissioners are
necessary, central government has arranged the election in a manner that has
undermined the whole process, making it little more than a political sideshow.

Along with many others, I was extremely worried that
policing would become an “electoral football” every four years, but this
election has been so mismanaged that voters are not engaged and the whole thing
has become a damp squib.

There will be a total of 1,375 polling stations open across Cornwall,
Devon and the Isles of Scilly on 15th November, and over
1,300,000 residents will have the option to cast a vote.

We have all received a booklet publicising the election and
explaining the new voting system. But amazingly, the booklet also tells us that
if we want to find out who is standing, we have to visit a website or phone
through “to order printed material” about the candidates.

In elections to Westminster
and the European Parliament, candidates are allowed to have a leaflet delivered
to all residences within a constituency, but central government has decreed
that this is not necessary for the Commissioner elections. This makes no sense
at all.

There are ten candidates, but information is scant and it
has been largely restricted to a few reports in the local press.

I understand that there have been opportunities to meet the
Tory candidate at a Padstow Hotel or at the Conservative Club in St Austell,
but the events were ticketed and cost £5 and £10 respectively. I understand
there was even a “light buffet” at Austell, though I am not sure that paying to
meet the candidate is something that will catch on in future campaigns.

I have even been contacted by a number of residents asking
who is standing and whether it is even worth bothering to vote. And is it any
wonder? At the time of writing this column, I have had one email from a
candidate but I have not received a single leaflet.

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Today at County Hall, having been ignored by the Cabinet on (i) the incinerator (ii) the St Austell, St Blazey and China Clay Area Regeneration Plan and (iii) the Cornwall Local Plan, I have had a success. In the item on the Local Development Scheme, I was able to persuade the Cabinet to correct some typographical errors ...

This afternoon,
the Cabinet debated a draft of the Cornwall Local Plan, which will set out planning policies for the next twenty years.

As the Chairman
of the Planning Policy Panel (PPAP), I addressed the content of the document
which I believe still needs considerable work. I covered a range of topics
including the weakness of the affordable housing policies, the lack of policies
on the cumulative impact of renewable energy schemes, contradictions in the section on the historic environment,
inconsistencies on the approach to eco-communities initiative, and the fact
that the policies needed to be rigorously tested.

The key debate
was housing numbers. The portfolio holder recommended a figure of 48,500 new
properties for the period 2010-2030. I argued in favour of a figure of 38,000. This
had been backed by members of PPAP at their recent meeting on 28th September
and Cllr David Biggs also spoke in favour of the lower figure.

The Cabinet
voted by four votes to three to support a housing target of 48,500. There was
one abstention and two members were not present.

At today’s
Cabinet meeting, I spoke out against the content of the St Austell, St Blazey
and China Clay Area Regeneration Plan. My comments were as follows:

“I do not
believe that you can support the Regeneration Plan as presently drafted and I
would wish to make the following points.

“This Council
has a corporate commitment to the eco-communities project – everyone knows this
is not something with which I agree – and we all know that the regeneration
plan was principally drafted to underpin and protect the validity of that
scheme.

“It is now clear
that the eco-communities project will total 2,300 housing units at the Bal / West Carclaze site and at Par. In the Cornwall Local Plan – these are identified as
allocations. These are referenced in Policy 2 which also supports ‘small-scale
exemplar’ projects to positively promote St Austell as the green capital of Cornwall.

“But this
regeneration document continues to promote large-scale ‘transformational’
eco-developments – and it is already being misused.

“We even have
the Coyte Farm development – a supermarket, a retail park and a golf club,
gobbling up a hundred acres of farmland – arguing that it is somehow a
transformational green development. And that is frankly ludicrous.

“If you wish to
adopt this document, surely it should be modified to be more consistent with
the content of the Local Plan.

“I was also disappointed that the reference to proposals needing broad
community support” has been removed and replaced with ‘must have been the
subject of robust community consultation’ – which suggests the Council will ask
local people what they think but not act on the comments if it doesn’t want to.

“What message is this sending out to the communities of Mid Cornwall?”

Cornwall
Council’s Cabinet today voted to agree a Revised Project Plan, to amend the
Integrated Waste Management Contract, and to push ahead with the construction
at incinerator at St Dennis.

The local
divisional member, my good friend Fred Greenslade, spoke with real heart
against the imposition on his community and I supported him as best I could in
the meeting.

I appealed to
the Cabinet to think again and pointed out that the Cornwall Waste Forum has
commissioned an independent report into their ‘high recycling’ alternative proposal,
which is due to be published on 17th November.

Printed below is
an extract from what I said:

“Over the last
few years, campaigners have shown – time and time again – that there are
better, greener and more sustainable ways to deal with our domestic waste.

“Their arguments
– economic, environmental, financial and social – are comprehensive, compelling
and should be listened to. You heard some of these arguments today in the
public questions and I have to say that many of the official responses were
poor – not least on those issues relating to the extent of ash, and the
capacity of the plant.

“It remains a
terrible travesty that this Council has refused to work up a ‘Plan B’ over the
last three years. I would appeal to you to right that wrong today and I call on
the Cabinet to not endorse the RPP.

“Spending a
ridiculous nine-figure sum on the construction of an over-sized incinerator
does not make financial sense – just compare this to the AD plant recently
constructed upcountry for £3 million but which will deal with 20,000 tonnes of
waste per annum.”

Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Mebyon Kernow has backed the campaign by the Living Wage
Foundation and Citizens UK
for a “living wage” of, at least, £7.45 an hour.

This comes in Living Wage week
and a member of MK has also challenged Cornwall Council to take a lead on the
matter and ensure all staff receive at least the “living wage.”

In his statement, MK spokesman Robert Simmons said:

“Mebyon Kernow
believes that work should pay for everyone and that the lowest earners
in society deserve fair wage levels.

“At this time
of rising living costs and stagnating wages, we welcome the
Living Wage initiative which should help the low paid achieve
a better quality of life.

“Cornwall
Council employs over 1,500 staff that earn the civil service minimum of
£6.30 per hour. This is well below the
Living Wage of £7.45 per hour – the level needed for a basic standard of living.
We believe this does not adequately reflect the hard work
and dedication of those on the frontline of public services in Cornwall.”

Monday, 5 November 2012

It is less than three weeks to Mebyon Kernow’s 2012 Conference,
which will take place on Saturday 24th November at Lys Kernow / New County Hall
in Truro.

The morning session is for party members and will include MK’s
formal Annual General Meeting, as well as a debate about the content of the Mebyon
Kernow manifesto for the 2013 elections to Cornwall Council and town and parish
councils.

The afternoon session will start at 2.00 and it will
showcase speeches from a series of leading members of Mebyon Kernow.

Sunday, 4 November 2012

My column in the last edition of the Cornish Guardian focused on the impact of second homes on Cornwall and its communities. It was as follows:

According to figures released by the Office of National
Statistics, Cornwall is the “second
home capital” of the United Kingdom.

Statistics from the 2011 census show that 23,000 people list
a “second home” in Cornwall. There
are also more holiday homes in Cornwall
than anywhere elsewhere.

This week, the National Housing Federation even warned that
“second homes” are increasingly pricing local people out of their communities,
and the countryside will “become a place for the well-off to enjoy at
weekends."

The mere existence of “second homes” and their preponderance
in Cornwall and elsewhere is, in my
view, part and parcel of a housing market that is totally out of control.

Sadly, David Cameron and his ministers, most of whom own
multiple houses, continue to reject all calls for controls on such properties.

But I am not surprised at the Prime Minister’s attitude,
which has much in common with many other occasional visitors to the Duchy, such
as the novelist A. N. Wilson.

Mr Wilson recently wrote a piece about how he had
"agonised" about buying a “second home,” stating he initially feared he
would seen as an absentee "invader." But somehow, he came to the
conclusion that: "However unfair it is that some people can afford holiday
homes while young locals find it impossible to get started on the property
ladder, Cornwall would die without second homes."

What twaddle. I agree more with local journalist Simon
Parker who publicly challenged A. N. Wilson on the matter and wrote the
following:

“The last thing any struggling community needs is to be
patronised and treated like a basket case by those who have, by their greed,
been the architects of many of its ills. By purchasing a property in a village,
holidaying there a couple of times a year, and thereby transforming that
village into a playground of the rich, these leeches suck the heart out of
communities.”

One thing we could do is find another way to describe “second
homes.”

As the other “Guardian” put it recently: “One of the key
policies of Mebyon Kernow … is to introduce planning restrictions to stop and
then reverse the spread of second 'homes' – the inverted commas around homes
are significant. The argument is that most of these bolt-holes are not ‘homes’
at all.”

Or as Simon Parker puts it: “While we're at it, let's lay to
rest the myth that these are second ‘homes.’ The expression is a misnomer. A
home is where you live, not a place you visit a couple of times a year.”

Sunday, 21 October 2012

Well done to the tens of thousands people have marched in
protest at government cuts in London,
Glasgow and Belfast
on Saturday.

The situation was summed up well by TUC general secretary
Brendan Barber. He said: “The evidence is mounting that austerity is failing. More
than 2.5 million people are out of work, a further three million are not
working enough hours to make ends meet, and wages have been falling every month
for the last three years … the huge squeeze on wages and living standards has
led to a massive hit on confidence and on demand in the economy.”

It is well-known that I am also opposed to the scale and
depth of the Coalition’s cuts to the public sector, but there is one area of
government spending that should be cut and that is nuclear weapons.

As a longstanding member of the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament, I was one of hundreds of members who supported a full-page advert
in yesterday’s Guardian newspaper (above) entcalling for an end to the Trident nuclear
missile programme.

Saturday, 6 October 2012

My article in
the latest edition of the Cornish Guardian focused on the ongoing debate about
housing numbers for the next twenty years. It is as follows:

On Thursday 27th
September, the new pressure group “Our Cornwall” was launched in Truro. It is campaigning against the
over-development of the Duchy, which it states is leading to “massive estates
on green-field sites, soulless car-dependent suburbs, more traffic congestion,
more pollution, declining town centres and irreversible environmental damage.”

I have great
sympathy with the aims of the group. Over the last two years, 4,450 new housing
units were built in Cornwall and, as of April 2012, there were 15,460
extant planning consents. And that does not even include the 1,500 new houses
and flats recently granted to the west of Truro.

I believe
planning is clearly out of control. Hundreds of planning permissions are being
given and yet, because of government policies on housing and a lack of
investment, little is happening to reduce the housing costs for local people
earning local wages in places like Cornwall.

On Friday 28th
September, I chaired the most recent meeting of Cornwall Council’s Planning
Policy Advisory Panel, which focused on the housing target for the next two
decades.

The officers had tabled a report which recommended that the number of
new housing units to be built between 2010 and 2030 should total 49,000. The
officers also argued that the housing target was based on population
projections from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), an assumed decrease
in average household size and a range of other factors.

They were supported by a handful of councillors, who argued that if the
target was too much lower it would not get through “inspection” by the Planning
Inspectorate. Apparently, under the Coalition’s new “localism” agenda, local
councils can make important political decisions as long as they are fully
in-line with what central government wants.

But not all councillors agreed with this view. At the meeting, I
presented an alternative proposal for a lower housing target of 38,000 with the
support of Camborne Councillor Dave Biggs.

We knew that between 1991 and 2010, 42,000 new properties were built in
Cornwall. And evidence
from the census and other sources is now showing that levels of in-migration
are slowing, while household size is not decreasing as previously predicted. So,
we could not see how the Council could justify or evidence such an increase in
the levels of house construction over previous decades.

We also argued that the priority need was not open-market housing, but delivering
genuine local-needs housing, and we will continue to demand that the policies are
rejigged to work for ordinary people.

For the record, members of the Panel voted by six votes to three voted
to throw out the 49,000 target and to recommend to the ruling Cabinet that the
housing target for 2010-2030 should be 38,000.